Two New German Billionaires Emerge In Consumer Electronics And Blood Plasma

FORBES has found two new billionaires in Germany in diverse industries. Erich Kellerhals created a fortune in the consumer electronics arena, while Wolfgang Marguerre built a successful pharmaceutical business with a focus on medicines derived from human proteins.

Kellerhals started his first business in Bavaria in 1963 selling bicycles, oil heaters, radio and TV-sets. The company grew fast – but for real success Kellerhals and partner Leopold Stiefel had to wait until 1979, when the first self-service stores became popular in Germany. Kellerhals and Stiefel opened their first specialized electronic store, Media Markt, in Munich that year. To expand even further, Kaufhof – which was then bought by large German retailer
Metro Group - bought a 54% stake in 1988 and integrated its own consumer electronic-chain – Saturn – in 1990, changing the retailer’s name to Media Saturn.

Kellerhals still owns a nearly 22% stake of Media Saturn – a stake worth a whopping $4 billion (2.9 billion euros). The group operates approximately 950 stores and offers online shopping in 17 countries in Europe and Asia. In 2012, Media-Saturn generated revenues of nearly $29 billion (21 billion euros). The group employs approximately 65,000 people from 122 countries.

Yet there is tension at this electronics behemoth. Every strategic decision at Media-Saturn needs a majority of 8o%, and Kellerhals, with 22% stake, has the power to cause discord. Not surprisingly, Metro Group management aims to get rid of this 80-percent-rule and wants to implement an advisory board, where simple majority would be enough. Kellerhals, meanwhile, believes that Metro does not want to include him in strategic decisions anymore. The quarrel has lasted for more than two years and probably is the reason that Media Saturn started rather late with its online business and is still lagging behind. A spokesman for Kellerhals did not respond to a request for comment.

Erich Kellerhals (Credit: Martin Schalk/Getty Images)

Much less is known about new billionaire Wolfgang Marguerre. Motivated by the problems facing people with hemophilia, Marguerre founded Octapharma in 1983 to produce Factor VIII and other human plasma proteins-based drugs, by initially using excess blood donated to the Red Cross and other organizations.

Marguerre, who lives in Heidelberg, Germany, owns 100% of the company and has turned it into one of the world's largest blood plasma product manufacturers – the basis for his fortune. Today Octapharma has production plants in five countries –Austria, France, Germany, Sweden and Mexico – and had 2012 revenues of $1.26 billion (916 million Euros) and profits of $187 million (136 million Euros). Two of Marguerre’s three children, Frederic and Tobias, sit on the management board of Octapharma. A spokesperson for Octapharma would not comment on Marguerre’s fortune.

Susanne Leiter is a business journalist in Vienna, Austria. Additional reporting from Zainab Amin.